Zhao Jun had a tug-of-war with old bureaucratic conservatives such as Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng in the palace.
After they left, he continued to criticize Zhao Zhen, further strengthening his idea of activating the Imperial City Administration and consolidating the imperial power.
Although Zhao Zhen had a weak character, he was still concerned about strengthening the imperial power. Therefore, he expressed in front of Zhao Jun that he would persevere.
Although Zhao Jun did not trust him, he could only rely on this fellow temporarily before his own strength became stronger. He had no other choice but to CPU like crazy and give him repeated instructions before leaving.
After leaving the palace, Zhao Jun did not go to the Imperial City Office, but went directly back to his residence. He needed to do some sorting out.
After returning home, he sent Zhou Xin and other imperial city inspectors away, went back to his room, took out a notebook from his locked suitcase, and then sat at the desk in front of the window to do data statistics.
The situation of official land around Bianliang City: Wangjiazhuang was allocated 367 mu of official land, with a tax rate of 1 dan to 89 dou per mu. Beigang Village was allocated 298 mu of official land, with a tax rate of 9 to 78 dou per mu. Dongguanzhuang Village.
Zhao Jun recorded the official land situation he had investigated today. After a while, when the Autumn Examination was over, he planned to go to the countryside and the grassroots level, and go to Henan, Huaibei, Xuzhou and other places in the Central Plains to understand the actual situation.
Now, in addition to going to the outer city to investigate the darkness of society, he also has many other things to do. For example, the current official land system has brought great burdens to the people, and the government's collection, oppression, and exploitation have caused countless people to lose their families and be separated from their wives and children.
The simplest example was that he had previously seen in the archives of the Imperial City Administration that the shipbuilding timber from the Qinlong Xiegu Office was collected from the people; and seven states also paid taxes on river bridge bamboo ropes, which generally amounted to hundreds of thousands of strings of cash.
The reason this incident was recorded was that during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, an official embezzled the money. Later, the official was transferred to the central government, and an imperial censor impeached him for this matter. Emperor Zhenzong of Song was furious and ordered the Imperial City Office to conduct a thorough investigation, which led to the record being recorded in the archives.
In other words, if no one embezzled the money, or if someone embezzled it but no one exposed it, then Zhao Jun would not even know about it.
What he didn't know was that this situation continued until the late reign of Emperor Renzong of Song. It was only when Bao Zheng was transferred to the post of Deputy Minister of Revenue that he discovered that there were so many exorbitant taxes levied on the people and requested that some be exempted that this situation came to an end.
This shows how severe the Song Dynasty government's levies, collections, extortions, corvée labor, and taxes were. Not only did ordinary people rebel, but even many small and medium-sized landlords could not stand such exploitation and rebelled.
The official fields that Zhao Jun is investigating now are also of a kind. Official fields are used to support officials. They are not allocated from existing land, but officials are allowed to recruit people to open up wasteland on their own.
While this policy sounded promising, the problem was that much of the land reclaimed was poorly fertile land with limited yields. Since the people were unwilling to rent land, officials resorted to administrative means to force them to do so. Furthermore, the rents were high and continued even in the face of disasters, severely exploiting the people.
Many villages were assigned official fields to cultivate. Sometimes the government would even directly exchange the people's good fields for official fields and seize their land. Under the heavy burden, entire villages would often flee their homes.
These were the questions Zhao Jun asked people in the countryside and villages outside Bianliang after he left the city. The country folk were not as vigilant as the city folks. Many of them were straightforward and would speak their minds directly if they had any complaints, without being too cunning.
Although some people kept silent because they saw they were from outside, Zhao Jun used the excuse that he was a businessman who wanted to buy some land outside the city and inquired about the situation. Since official land could not be bought or sold, there would always be honest or simple people who would tell him the truth, and he was able to get a lot of information out of him.
"It's outrageous. Adding the information Fan Zhongyan gave me, the things I've seen and learned in the past twenty days alone add up to over ten thousand words, documenting countless people's families torn apart and their wives and children torn apart."
"This is what I've seen so far. The emperor is under the watchful eyes of the Imperial Censors and the Remonstration Office. To prevent the leakage of negative information, these people generally dare not go too far. They basically accept bribes and act as a protective umbrella for evil forces. When you leave Bianliang and travel around the country, you don't know how many things you will encounter."
"Sometimes, reading too much of this kind of dark stuff can really make people depressed. Forget it, I should think about what I should do in the future first."
Zhao Jun wrote down all the information. After typing the last word, he closed the document, turned on the music, leaned back in his chair, and accidentally glanced at the mobile phone on the table. He plugged his phone into the computer again, trying to charge it again.
My phone was short-circuited when it was flooded in the mudslide, but it hasn't turned on since. A few months later, the internals should have dried out. I've tried to charge it multiple times, but to no avail. I wonder if it's completely broken.
But even so, he often maintains this habit. What if one day he can suddenly charge his phone? He still has a lot of his parents' photo albums on his phone, which is also a reminder.
After plugging in the power, he looked at the screen, but there was still no movement. He could only lean back in his chair and look out the window at the backyard, thinking.
"Now that I have obtained the authority of the Imperial City Bureau and the Xiang Army, I cannot start to make a big move right away. First, I need to thoroughly investigate the Imperial City Bureau, and second, I need to continue to investigate and cleanse the numerous crimes in the outer city of Bianliang."
"Internal rectification is imminent, not just for the imperial dynasty and Bianliang, but for the entire country. For now, we can only first spread the Imperial City Division throughout the Song Dynasty and eliminate evil and corrupt officials across the country, just like the anti-corruption and anti-gangster campaigns that countries in later generations have to carry out every few years."
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